Julian Padowicz's Books

Mother and Me

Escape from Warsaw 1939

By: Julian Padowicz

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Mother and Me

Escape from Warsaw 1939

By: Julian Padowicz

In 1939," Julian Padowicz says, "I was a Polish Jew-hater. Under different circumstances my story might have been one of denouncing Jews to the Gestapo. As it happened, I was a Jew myself, and I was seven years old." Julian's mother was a Warsaw socialite who had no interest in child-rearing. She turned her son over completely to his governess, a good Catholic, named Kiki, whom he loved with all his heart. Kiki was deeply worried about Julian's immortal soul, explaining that he could go to Heaven only if he became a Catholic. When bombs began to fall on Warsaw, Julian's world crumbled. His beloved Kiki returned to her family in Lodz; Julian's stepfather joined the Polish army, and the grief-stricken boy was left with the mother whom he hardly knew. Resourceful and determinded, his mother did whatever was necessary to provide for herself and her son: she brazenly cut into food lines and befriended Russian officers to get extra rations of food and fuel. But brought up by Kiki to distrust all things Jewish, Julian considered his mother's behavior un-Christian. In the winter of 1940, as conditions worsened, Julian and his mother made a dramatic escape to Hungary on foot through the Carpathian mountains and Julian came to believe that even Jews could go to Heaven.

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Page Count

422

Publisher

Chicago Review Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0897336690

ISBN 13

9780897336697

A Ship in the Harbor

Mother and Me, Part II

By: Julian Padowicz

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A Ship in the Harbor

Mother and Me, Part II

By: Julian Padowicz

In this powerful and absorbing sequel to Mother and Me: Escape from Warsaw 1939 (ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Autobiography 2006), the author recalls his flight from the Nazis in Hungary as an 8-year-old boy with his resourceful and determined mother, Barbara.

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Page Count

205

Publisher

Chicago Review Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0897335988

ISBN 13

9780897335980

A Ship in the Harbor

Mother and Me, Book II

By: Julian Padowicz

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A Ship in the Harbor

Mother and Me, Book II

By: Julian Padowicz

Mother and Me recount a chilling journey during the war." A story of excape from the Nazis during WWII continues. Engrossing and vivid prose

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Page Count

204

Publisher

Academy Chicago Publishers

Published Date

ISBN 10

0897339916

ISBN 13

9780897339919

Never Been This Old Before: A Love Story

By: Julian Padowicz

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Never Been This Old Before: A Love Story

By: Julian Padowicz

In this most recent sequel to his award-winning memoir, "Mother and Me-Escape from Warsaw 1939," Julian Padowicz presents the adult years of his continuing struggle to become his own person, in the face of his domineering mother's responses to the personal challenges created by the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia. Three previous memoirs covered his childhood and adolescence as Julian and his courageous and creative mother struggle to survive WWII and escape to America-in this one, adult Julian, educated now in the United States, struggles to free himself of the suffocating pall his celebrated but driven and self-centered mother has laid over his life. Growing up in a venerable boarding school and the homes of relatives, while his mother pursues social objectives, Julian searches for companionship, love, and a career, achieving them eventually, after a series of missteps and misadventures.

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Page Count

184

Publisher

Crossroad Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1637898258

ISBN 13

9781637898253

Loves of Yulian

Mother and Me, Part III

By: Julian Padowicz

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Loves of Yulian

Mother and Me, Part III

By: Julian Padowicz

Loves of Yulian is the poignant conclusion to the three-part memoir recounting the author’s harrowing WWII escape from occupied Poland to America. After fleeing over the Carpathian Mountains into Hungary, eight-year-old Yulian and his resourceful but self-involved mother, Barbara, are on board a ship to Rio de Janeiro to await their turn for immigration to the United States. A former Warsaw socialite, Barbara has no marketable skills, only her looks, wits and courage. Paying their way by selling the diamonds she had concealed in her clothing, they land in Brazil with only the diamond engagement ring on her finger. Somehow, it must finance both their stay and eventual passage to New York.Yulian, a sensitive Jewish boy raised by an overprotective, devoutly Catholic nanny, has difficulty interacting with other children and concludes that God is punishing him for abandoning Judaism. Complicating matters, he falls in love with a beautiful, but significantly older, fellow refugee, Irenka, who has been hired to take him to the beach. When his mother meets a man she truly cares for, Yulian hopes he has finally found his long-sought-after father figure. But Barbara’s European upper-class values clash with her suitor’s Latin ardor, leaving Yulian in the middle of a misaligned courtship, which he desperately wants to set right.Eventually, Yulian resolves his spiritual issues with the help of a celebrated Polish poet and his own teddy bear. His ambitious mother, however, must choose between a man she truly loves and her future in America.

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